Is any of the Bible true?

Of how much importance is it to insist upon this, today! Scripture is true and trustworthy every where, or it is to be trusted nowhere. Let us take our stand boldly there, if we would retain anything of what God has given to us. And away with the unbelieving thought that Scripture is not meant to teach us science! Let us rather say that it is meant to teach whatever it does teach. It is light, not darkness; truth, and only truth; the soul of reason; the illumination of all it touches.

No, depend upon this, God loves us a great deal too well to put into our hands a book that cannot be trusted. I say this soberly, and seriously, and I have no hesitation in saying — spite of the infidelity of the day — that I believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God, from cover to cover. And, in spite of all that is said against it, the more I study the Bible, the more do I find out its unity, its completeness, its reliability, its absolute impregnability against all the attacks of the enemy; and that it is the revelation of God to my soul. I have found light, and always increasing light, through the Scriptures. And to you I commend them most earnestly and fervently.

What is it to attribute inaccuracy to Scripture, but to say we must no longer speak of it as the Word of God? Satan is a liar, and the father of it." God is no more "a man that He should lie," than He is the son of man, that He should repent." And this applies equally to all subjects. He could no more give me false physics than false arguments, — untrue statements as to sun or moon or firmament, than as to Christ or to salvation. Once admit a possibility of error, though it be infinitesimal, it must shake conviction as to the whole. And the Lord Himself puts His reliability as a Teacher precisely on this ground. "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" Take away the truth of Scripture in matters in which it can be tested, how shall we accredit it in those where it cannot be tested? "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." Such are the moral principles of the Author of Christianity; and by these we for our part are entirely willing that it should be judged. For with the Word of God what may be pleaded for man may not be pleaded. Man is fallible and ignorant, where yet he may be honest and true; but we cannot plead a mistake of the Omniscient, and call him who makes the mistake omniscient any longer.

If we think of the Scriptures as a revelation given to us from God who cannot lie, and if we have them as He gave them to us, we cannot give harbourage to the notion that the smallest untruth can be found therein—or any statement which, taken in its connection, would be calculated to leave a false impression upon the mind of the reader. Were it possible that an honest seeker after light could be deceived by them—were it possible that they could lead the soul who trusted them as the truth of God into darkness and error, they would prove themselves to be but the corrupt production of the fallen mind of man, and valueless as a guide to the knowledge of God. They would bear witness against themselves as not the offspring of One who cannot lie, but of one who was both a liar and a murderer.

If we think of the Scriptures as a revelation given to us from God who cannot lie, and if we have them as He gave them to us, we cannot give harbourage to the notion that the smallest untruth can be found therein — or any statement which, taken in its connection, would be calculated to leave a false impression upon the mind of the reader. Were it possible that an honest seeker after light could be deceived by them — were it possible that they could lead the soul who trusted them as the truth of God into darkness and error, they would prove themselves to be but the corrupt production of the fallen mind of man, and valueless as a guide to the knowledge of God. They would bear witness against themselves as not the offspring of One who cannot lie, but of one who was both a liar and a murderer.

We may thank Dr. Farrar for his candor. It is certainly well to know what Scripture is for him, and how far "texts" are likely to decide the matter in question. Where he finds that prophets and apostles, nay, the Lord Himself, sanction his view of the matter, it would be hard to say. There is certainly abundance of proof of the very opposite, and in the mouth of one who professes such unbounded confidence in the "illumination of the Spirit of Christ," it seems a strange assertion that thus the Spirit of truth must have taught error, or at least have used such feeble and imperfect means of communicating truth, that He could not prevent its being mixed up with error. We refuse this teaching altogether. We on the authority of Scripture itself believe that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Tim. 3:16-17). We believe in a really divine revelation given to us by One who cannot lie, and who does not for bread give us a stone, nor put darkness for light, or light for darkness. We would obediently "search" these Scriptures, conscious indeed of our own weakness and ignorance in doing so, but sincerely trusting Him, who assures us that "he that will do God's will shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God" (John 7:17).

Surely nothing can be more positive, nothing wider in reach than this: "Scripture" — not merely this or that passage, specially guided or guarded, because of special importance, but Scripture, as Scripture, — "Scripture cannot be broken." Is it then the statement that "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is," or any other, however insignificant it may seem to us, if Scripture makes it, then its truth is guaranteed — "Scripture cannot be broken."

The first and grandest characteristic is that God inspired every scripture, every whit that was so written when Paul wrote his last to Timothy, his final to any. Every scripture is God-breathed, even anything that He would add afterwards. This is enough for all that know God, and have every reason to distrust themselves or other men who were not inspired. As the apostle John later still and most trenchantly says, "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them [the deceivers and antichrists], because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world; therefore speak they [as] of the world, and the world heareth them. We [the inspired] are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." What an awful warning to "higher critics," and their victims! Scripture possesses beyond all else the indelible authority of God, not only what was meant but what is written; but if this be so, it is in the fullest way profitable. Their value, not only as the ultimate source of truth but as the standard by which the highest ministry, even an apostle's, was to be tried (Acts 17:11), is without a rival.

Now to what point are things drifting? Is it possible to obtain light from any quarter as to this? Surely it is. We aver without hesitation that God has spoken in His most Holy Word, and it is wisdom on our part to give heed to His voice. But here we are confronted with a serious difficulty. The irreverent tampering of the clergy in recent years with the Scriptures has seriously shaken men's confidence in their divine authority. Strange as it may seem, it is the Protestant rather than the Romanist clergy who have been guilty of this great sin. Both the late and present Popes have acknowledged with no uncertain sound in public documents the divine authority of the Scriptures. For ourselves, we are satisfied that the old faith is the true one, i.e., that the sacred writings are in their entirety God's message to men. No higher ground could possibly be conceived than that which is claimed in 1 John 4:6 for the writers of Scripture: "We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." If this claim of the Apostle be not admitted, if the inspired writings are not God's infallible standard of truth, then are we absolutely without light as to the future, and are at the mercy of familiar spirits, designing priesthoods, and wolves of every kind.

I see not how we can doubt that Holy Scripture containeth the certain revelation of all things necessary to our salvation, because it is by their revelation alone that their necessity is shown. None can be the author of truth but God. There can therefore be no truth but as coming from Him, and all that He says must be true as it is written, 'Every word of God is pure. He is a Shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar.' The whole authority therefore of any man consists simply in the proof that he speaks the words of God, and it is merely that by Him we believe in God, from whose life we were alienated by the ignorance that was in us through the blindness of our hearts. And therefore of the Son of God Himself, as appearing in the flesh as 'the Apostle of our profession,' it is said, 'He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true, for He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.' To Him indeed 'the Spirit was not given by measure' 'in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' who is the Object of faith as well as the Messenger of it - the Fulness of truth in Himself, so as that the Spirit given to us does but take of His, whose is all that the Father hath, and show it to us according to the measure of the gift of God. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!